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Post by Jonathan Singer on Jul 22, 2013 7:36:40 GMT -5
7/22 Red Sox (RHP Brandon Workman 0-0 5.40) vs. Rays (LHP Matt Moore 13-3 3.44) 7:10 pm ET, NESN/MLBN/WEEI7/23 Red Sox (LHP Jon Lester 8-6 4.58) vs. Rays (RHP Roberto Hernandez 5-10 4.90) 7:10 pm ET, FOX//WEEI7/24 Red Sox (LHP Felix Doubront 7-3 3.76) vs. Rays (LHP David Price 4-5 4.03) 7:10 pm ET, NESN/ESPN/WEEI7/25 Red Sox (RHP John Lackey 7-7 2.95) vs. Rays (RHP Jeremy Hellickson 9-3 4.62) 8:05 pm ET, NESN/MLBN/WEEIMLB StandingsRed Sox Hitting StatsRed Sox Pitching StatsMLB ScoreboardMLB TransactionsWeatherSeries Thread Disclaimer: The SoxProspects Moderators will be somewhat liberal in policing the Red Sox "Series" Threads. Some of the Ground Rules are applied loosely in here, as we understand that there is a tendency to want to react (or overreact) to every play of a Sox game with one line reactionary posts. Those posts are okay in the Red Sox Series threads to a point - we certainly appreciate the passion. Just try not to overdo it, and try to maintain some semblance of reason. In addition, please don't let those type of posts spill over to other more substantive threads, where they may be deleted. -The Management
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Post by Jonathan Singer on Jul 22, 2013 7:36:53 GMT -5
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Jul 22, 2013 7:40:59 GMT -5
Easily the biggest series of the season begins tonight. Add 3 in Baltimore this weekend and it's the biggest week of the year. Honestly, I think both teams will pass us. Unless, Buchholz gets back on the mound and Lester starts pitching like he used to. |
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Jul 22, 2013 7:58:24 GMT -5
Drew 0-3 with 3 K's last night. Its getting to the point where I'm almost starting to enjoy how bad Drew is.
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Post by GyIantosca on Jul 22, 2013 8:00:56 GMT -5
FWIW, the Sox are not built to win it but there fun and just think of this team last year. I personally don not want Peavy here. If Buch can't make it there done. Unless you can get Lee. We match up well against the Rays this year.
I just donated. Not much money but I contributed.
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Post by mainesox on Jul 22, 2013 9:15:38 GMT -5
Easily the biggest series of the season begins tonight. Add 3 in Baltimore this weekend and it's the biggest week of the year. Honestly, I think both teams will pass us. Unless, Buchholz gets back on the mound and Lester starts pitching like he used to. At the beginning of the month the Rays were 6 games back, and 4 games over .500; since then they have played teams with a combined .411 winning percentage - three last place teams and the Twins (who are only not in last because they've been out-sucked by the White Sox). You can even go back a full month ago to when they were in last place, and one game over .500, and they've only played one non-last-place team in that span (the Tigers). I'm not saying these games aren't important (they clearly are), or that this series should be easy (there's probably something to be said for momentum, and it's not like they're Astros bad or anything), but I don't think the Rays are nearly as legitimate of a threat as people think they are. |
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Post by Guidas on Jul 22, 2013 9:41:03 GMT -5
I f-ing hate these guys. More than the Yankees since 2008, actually. Win 2 and steal 1 more.
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Post by mainesox on Jul 22, 2013 9:44:34 GMT -5
I f-ing hate these guys. More than the Yankees since 2008, actually. Win 2 and steal 1 2 more. |
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Post by James Dunne on Jul 22, 2013 9:51:02 GMT -5
I know the Rays have been playing mediocre to poor teams, but they've been beating them every single night. It would be hard to beat the Astros 17 out of 19 times head-to-head. Basically the team held its head just above water until Wil Myers come up and David Price came back. Now they're a very good team. Absolutely a legitimate threat in my eyes.
On a tangentially-related note, it seems impossible that Roberto Fausto Carmona Hernandez has only made two regular season starts in his career at Fenway Park.
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Post by godot on Jul 22, 2013 9:59:47 GMT -5
Rays are a well managed and coached club with good defense and pitching. Yeah, they have been playing bottom level teams, but they walked over them. If the Sox beat the same competition in the same way, some would be anointing them the greatest team in baseball, ever. Regardless, this series will be fun and we may see what we really have with both.
The Sox have been remarkable and resilient, overcoming, so far, injuries ,black holes, and the disappearance of Will Middlebroooks in their lineup. Ben has tough decisions to make in the next week or so regarding who to give up for who, and if it really make sense to trade their prospects. Good luck Ben.
Enjoy this series and the one with the O's.
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Post by Guidas on Jul 22, 2013 10:03:53 GMT -5
Agreed. And if you look at the Sox' record vs. the teams the Rays just ran through it's not as impressive. Of course, a lot depends on when you catch a team, who is injured, etc, but the Rays have high quality pitching, and their offense has been <opportune> all July. Also the Sox have been very BBIP lucky vs. Tampa this year (also opportune). We can't guarantee that continuing, but it would be nice if Tampa could make some key errors once again.
One big benefit to this series is that if the Sox can win it they drop the Rays 2.5 back (or more) with only 3 more head-to-head games left in the year. A sweep is too much to hope for, but do so would severely hamstring Tampa's hopes going forward for winning the Division.
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Post by mainesox on Jul 22, 2013 10:30:10 GMT -5
I know the Rays have been playing mediocre to poor teams, but they've been beating them every single night. It would be hard to beat the Astros 17 out of 19 times head-to-head. Basically the team held its head just above water until Wil Myers come up and David Price came back. Now they're a very good team. Absolutely a legitimate threat in my eyes. On a tangentially-related note, it seems impossible that Roberto Fausto Carmona Hernandez has only made two regular season starts in his career at Fenway Park. I'm not trying to say they are a bad team by any means, or that they aren't a threat at all, but their record has been propped up quite a bit by having a month of playing nothing but the some of the worst teams in baseball. They've certainly taken advantage of their schedule, and a bad team isn't going to win that many games in that stretch, but they're probably less of a threat than the Os are. |
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Post by James Dunne on Jul 22, 2013 11:13:03 GMT -5
I'm not trying to say they are a bad team by any means, or that they aren't a threat at all, but their record has been propped up quite a bit by having a month of playing nothing but the some of the worst teams in baseball. They've certainly taken advantage of their schedule, and a bad team isn't going to win that many games in that stretch, but they're probably less of a threat than the Os are.I think we may just have to agree to disagree on this point. I think the O's mediocre starting pitching gives them an 88-90 win upside. They can hit, and their defense is strong, but they're a bigger upgrade than Scott Feldman away from being a serious threat to Boston and Tampa, in my opinion. Tampa, meanwhile, doesn't have an obvious weakness. They allow .42 fewer runs per game than the Orioles while only scoring .11 less. James Loney isn't actually this good and will regress, but I think they have the pitching depth and a solid enough offense to get them through the stretch run. |
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Post by godot on Jul 22, 2013 11:46:50 GMT -5
Interesting comments about Loney. He had an outstanding April and has hit well the rest of the months, now at about .310 with 9 hrs and over 40 rbis. I would think he would be regressing by now but he keeps a steady pace. Maybe he will tail off, but maybe Maddon and staff know how to use him. They stressed to him that he did not need to hit the home runs but stick to line drive, contact approach. Time will tell. But they seem to get the best out of their players, especially Red Sox first base casts off.
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Post by threeifbaerga on Jul 22, 2013 12:25:27 GMT -5
And even if Loney does flop they'll probably just find a way to coax 30 bombs a year out of Lars Anderson or Jeff Bailey or some other Red Sox castoff.
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Post by feez732 on Jul 22, 2013 14:23:19 GMT -5
Interesting comments about Loney. He had an outstanding April and has hit well the rest of the months, now at about .310 with 9 hrs and over 40 rbis. I would think he would be regressing by now but he keeps a steady pace. Maybe he will tail off, but maybe Maddon and st.ff know how to use him. They stressed to him that he did not need to hit the home runs but stick to line drive, contact approach. Time will tell. But they seem to get the best out of their players, especially Red Sox first base casts off. James Loney's wOBA for the year is 357, compared to a 332 career wOBA. His 421 wOBA in April was obviously fantastic. He's followed it though with monthly splits of 378, 303 and 335, which collectively are pretty close to his career average. It's also worth noting that his offense last year, 272 wOBA, differed from the rest of his career by a much larger margin than his numbers this year have. |
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Post by ray88h66 on Jul 22, 2013 15:54:02 GMT -5
Drew 0-3 with 3 K's last night. Its getting to the point where I'm almost starting to enjoy how bad Drew is. Drew sits tonight. Iggy at SS, Snyder at 3b. Hopefully Drew doesn't start against a lefty the rest of the year. |
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Post by mgoetze on Jul 22, 2013 16:33:42 GMT -5
Wow do we seriously have 5 right-handed hitters in a row in the lineup? Let me fix that for you, Farrell:
Ellsbury
Pedroia
Napoli
Ortiz
Gomes
Victorino
Iglesias
Snyder
Lavarnway
Much better, no?
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Post by bluechip on Jul 22, 2013 16:37:55 GMT -5
Wow do we seriously have 5 right-handed hitters in a row in the lineup? Let me fix that for you, Farrell: Ellsbury Pedroia Napoli Ortiz Gomes Victorino Iglesias Snyder Lavarnway Much better, no? I like the top five. |
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Jul 22, 2013 18:11:04 GMT -5
Are we rooting for the Yankees or Texas tonight? If Baltimore or TB catches us for first. We're battling for the two wild-card spots. We're 5 games ahead of Texas, 7 ahead of MFY's and Cleveland. Personally, I think the Yanks fall 10 plus behind shortly. Texas gets Darvish back tonight and picks up Garzo. Let's go Yankees!
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Post by mgoetze on Jul 22, 2013 18:26:53 GMT -5
BABIP gods not being kind to Workman so far, but he's still throwing strikes and doesn't seem rattled at all. Excellent.
Also, note to Salty haters: the first pitch to Scott would have been a strike with Salty catching.
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Post by mgoetze on Jul 22, 2013 18:49:50 GMT -5
So, do the Red Sox actually have any sort of plan if Workman's pitch count gets too high too fast? Britton has pitched the last two days, could he handle multiple innings today?
They should have recalled Wright rather than De La Torre when they put Bailey on the DL, if you ask me.
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Post by jdb on Jul 22, 2013 19:09:59 GMT -5
So, do the Red Sox actually have any sort of plan if Workman's pitch count gets too high too fast? Britton has pitched the last two days, could he handle multiple innings today? They should have recalled Wright rather than De La Torre when they put Bailey on the DL, if you ask me. Good question but hopefully he gives us 5+ at this rate. I do lthink he could be a key RP down the stretch for us though. |
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Post by mgoetze on Jul 22, 2013 19:15:51 GMT -5
Moore must be some kind of magician ... how does he get people to swing at that changeup in the dirt?
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Post by mgoetze on Jul 22, 2013 19:18:47 GMT -5
Does anyone actually want to see or hear these Fenway Fan Stories?
(What I want to see is Jamie Erdahl borrowing from Jenny Dell's wardrobe...)
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